That is, you'll first have to endure a little gore when King Arthur's son, Mordred, impales his father and the latter subsequently buries the sword Excalibur in his son's chest... but at about 1.30 minutes into the clip, the March begins. Say what you will, I think it's breathtaking (you may need a few listens though).

I have always liked both Excalibur's visual elements AND its soundtrack. Though almost forgotten now - the film dates from 1981, and people's memories seem to stretch back barely five years these days - for film connoisseurs (not that I count myself one, far from) Excalibur firmly remains on its pedestal as a groundbreaking adventure/fantasy monument of the eighties. Cinematography and costumes are exquisite, winning it a nomination for a 1982 cinematography Academy Award (which it however lost to Reds - bad choice!) and a Palme d'Or (the real thing, not just a nomination) at the Cannes Film Festival of that year. The director, John Boorman, is perhaps best known for Deliverance, but as for me, I will always feel, well, dare I say indebted (?)... for his classy adaptation of Arthurian legends. Excalibur often strikes to me like a rapid succession of artsy photographs. Btw, brilliant acting too - Nigel Terry had the role of his life as King Arthur, which he played both as a young man and as an aged monarch.

Boorman's choice for the then unknown South African composer Trevor Jones was also spot on. Jones, whose career was effectively launched by Boorman's film, produced a soundtrack rife with Orff and Wagner as well as original compositions, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. From Orff he took 'O Fortuna' from his Carmina Burana cantate, and from Wagner, the Siegfried, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal themes.

MFBB.

P.S.: a cantate is simply a composition containing vocals and an instrumental accompaniment, often containing more than one movement.

Friday, October 09, 2009

No, I will not elaborate on the Nobel Peace Prize for Hussein. First, others do that for me. Second, it makes me sick. If anything, it shows the now near total bankruptcy of that once great and admirable institution. Nuff said.

Instead, I think I'd do better to quickly shed some light on the now daily deteriorating situation of Europes islamization, and this by means of just three topics randomly picked from a couple of newssites.

1°) I have briefly touched upon the subject of violent behaviour of primarily young muslims in Europes cities during the so-called "peaceful" season of ramadan. While the ramadan season is indeed getting more violent with every passing year, the turmoil is certainly not limited to that particular timeframe. Here's some German footage of what is happening in Berlin neighborhoods such as Wedding on a daily basis. Oh, and if you needed still further proof that the islamization of Europe is facilitated by the left, notice that the young Turks operate often together with extreme leftist Antifa thugs.

And even in light of the appalling situation, you still find the lucicrous fools, as evidenced by the video above, who want to solve the problem with even more "social workers".

2°) Then there is this topic here, a German publisher, Felix Droste, refrains from publishing a book dealing with the ever increasing problem of honour killings... out of fear for retaliations from muslims:

A German book publisher has canceled a novel about Islamic "honor killings," fearing that the book would offend the Muslim community and put him in danger. Critics of the decision call it a cowardly move, but others say the publisher is simply being responsible.

The publisher of the book, which was to have been titled "To Whom Honor is Due," has indicated that he withdrew the book after an expert on Islam warned that some of the passages could spark violent retaliation from Muslims.

"After the Muhammad cartoons, one knows that one can't publish sentences or drawings that defame Islam without expecting a security risk," Felix Droste, of Droste Verlag publishing, told the German newspaper Der Spiegel last week. He referred to a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that were published in Denmark in 2005 and sparked deadly violence across the Muslim world.

GENEVA — A nuclear physicist working at the world's largest atom smasher has been arrested on suspicion of links to the Algerian branch of Al Qaeda, another blow to a project that has been plagued by glitches and was shut down after a massive electrical failure a year ago.

The scientist, arrested in France, is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda's North African offshoot, which has carried out a deadly campaign against security forces in recent months, a French official said Friday...

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

During the Bush years, Belgium has had three ambassadors, namely Stephen Brauer (2001-2003), a man who made it CEO of Hunter Engineering Company, Tom Korologos (2004-2007), prominent businessman, impeccable US diplomat and former senior counselor for the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) in Iraq, and Sam Fox, CEO of Harbour Group Ltd. (2007-2009).

With the changing of the guard in Washington, the US Embassy in Belgium is now headed by yet another Ambassador, Howard W. Gutman, handpicked by Obama and in function since about one month.

And suddenly, Belgian TV notices there's something like a US Ambassador. Below you see a video of the popular late-night talk show De Laatste Show (The Last Show), with anchor Michel de Vliegher, on the Eén network. Hat tip for the video Luc Van Braekel.

The contrast with his predecessors, men who made it in business, couldn't be greater. Yet where Brauer, Korologos and Fox were persona non grata in the through and through red Belgian TV, Gutman, a Washingon attorney, Obama campaign financier AND actor, is suddenly hot property. I didn't need Belgian TV to hear of Gutman's appearance on our magical kingdom's soil, since I receive montly news emails from the US Embassy. In this manner, I was able to lay my hands on Gutman's 9/11 remembrance speech.

Here... it is:

September 11 Memorial Speech by Howard W. Gutman, US Ambassador to Belgium

"Most days are solely about what we are doing.They are meant to be lived in the present.A busy day at work . . . picking up the kids at school . . .But September 11 is different

It is not about what we are doing . . . but about who we are . . . and what kind of planet we live on.

It is meant to be lived not simply in the present, but in the past and even more so in the future.

In the past, as it is about memories and honor.

We of course remember and honor all who died that day.

People whose only fault was that they were Americans who happened to work in a particular office .

And people like Patrice Braut, a 31 year old Belgian, whose only fault was that he was a Belgian who loved America enough that he chose to work at Marsh & McLennon on Wall Street rather than remain in Anderlecht.

People whose only fault was that they were Americans or visitors to America who chose to board a particular flight.

We honor them all.

We honor their parents who lost children.

We honor their children who lost parents.

We honor them all, including victims of terror anywhere in the world, including right here in Europe.

And on September 11, we also so dearly honor those who lost their lives because they chose to serve.

Men and women whose office building was not a tower of trade . . .

But a Pentagon of protection for us all.

As to them, I can think of no better description of why we honor them than the lesson I recently learned from one of the heads of our American Battlefield cemeteries right here in Belgium;

He noted to me on a recent visit

That for those buried in his cemeteryThey remain each day on active duty. . .And on each day that we fail to remember them . . . that we fail to honor them . . they have served a day without a mission.

Every soldier is entitled to his mission.

We are that mission.

September 11 is indeed about the past.

But September 11 is even moreso about the future.

It is about not simply the planet that we live on,

But the one we will leave to our children.

For on September 11, the only thing more disturbing than thinking about those murdered . . .

Is thinking about those who did the murderers . . . Those who do acts of terrorism anywhere on this planet.

And that is why we are here.

That is what we are doing in Embassy Belgium.

That is what you have given your career to.

Because September 11 is first and foremost about you. . . and about all of the colleagues in the State Department.

When you are asked what you do for a career.

Don’t say that you work in a consular section, or in buildings and maintenance or in an economic section of the Embassy.

Tell them that you are preventing tomorrow’s September 11.

That you are making the planet safer for our children.

Because that is our mission daily. That is our duty.

Those who were buried this day deserve nothing less.

I now would ask you to observe a moment of silence."

Holy crapola. Have-you-ever-read-such-a-busload-of-boolshit-in-so-short-a-time??? One of the things any sensible person instinctively knows when dealing with problems, enemies, any dire situation... is to IDENTIFY your problem. To put a fitting NAME on your enemy. Since this dude clearly fails to IDENTIFY the problem, I must conclude he's no sensible person at all. 9/11 was an ISLAMIC terrorist act... the terrorists the US faces in Afghanistan and Iraq in particular, and all over the globe in the broader sense, are ISLAMIC terrorists. The scheming jihadis rounded up in Queens and the Rockies are ISLAMIC terrorists. The 14,200 or so terror attacks worldwide committed since 9/11 are ISLAMIC terrorist acts.

Lesson from OutlawMike to Howard Gutless: Not once mentioning those dreaded M- and I-words when lamenting the terrible calamity that struck your country on 9/11 and plunged it into a war lasting till now, dear embarrassment, makes as much sense as trying to get rid of that cancer that's eating you up by insisting it's something along the lines of a flu or arthritis.

But of course, that's not the whole story. Mr. Gutman, in interviews with Belgian PC magazines, newspapers, and now on TV, has really profiled himself as Mr. Nice Guy. Posing as someone who actually works, unlike "the old ambassadors who are in 4 country clubs" (his own words); comparing the high class Belgian sea resort Knokke to France's Saint-Tropez, claiming the mayor of the town of Bree is the most talented politician on the face of the earth (Bree is the birthplace of Belgian tennis wonder Kim Clijsters) etc etc etc...

And for our MSM idiots it's of course all wonderful. The result is that the gullible Belgian TV viewer and reader of De Standaard, HLN or Het Nieuwsblad... shuts off the TV or puts away his newspaper with a warm and fluffy feeling about the new ambassador.

There are, however, some key aspects of Mr. Gutmans career that for some reason totally eluded that ordinary Belgian TV viewer and newspaper reader. From the NYT, no less:

Just let us be clear about this: this cunt Rosenberg was caught unloading small arms and 740 pounds of dynamite, meant to KILL AND MAIM US civil servants and citizens, and her lawyer, the fella who managed to get Clinton so far as TO PARDON HER... a guy who thinks that commemmorating 9/11 "... is not about what we are doing . . . but about who we are . . . and what kind of planet we live on..."